PUD discusses customer service, system maintenance

The Wahkiakum PUD board of commissioners meeting was busy Tuesday with project discussion and other items.

County Commissioner Blair Brady was present and told the board that he was in Olympia recently looking into funding for help with a new substation among other projects. He said he hoped that it would go through.

Janna Kehrli, account supervisor and lead customer service representative for the PUD, gave a brief presentation of her recent trip to Sea-Tac for a customer service seminar. She said she did a lot of networking and found different means of working with colleagues and customers.

Commissioner Robert Jungers questioned Kehrli about the level of customer service satisfaction with our PUD compares to other PUDs.

She told him that while there is always room for improvement, she feels that they are in pretty good shape. She said that while networking with other customer service reps, she learned about safety measures other offices use in case of emergencies.

Manager Dave Tramblie said this is why they try to keep two people in the office at the same time. Kehrli pointed out that she knew it was a concern of Commissioner Larry Reese.

Tramblie told the board that the energy conservation credits they receive from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) don’t give them a lot of options.

He said that he and Reese recently went to Clark County PUD to look at a used substation transformer. He said the asking price was $15,000, and it would be a good idea to have the transformer checked out prior to purchase.

Tramblie reported on deterioration of meters on Puget Island. He said that 42 out of 500 meters have been replaced.

With the exception of new construction, meters on the Westend were installed around 1977. He said it was the recommendation of the company to replace the meters every 10 years. Commissioner Esther Gregg said she believed that 20 years was a more realistic figure.

Auditor Erin Wilson said that there has been no response to the recent Information Technology Services ad in The Eagle.

Wilson said she received an email from the Benton County PUD and was informed that they have a group that gets together about four times between March and November to discuss best practices and new software. She said that she would like to be involved in the committee to learn about the software practices at other PUDs.

Wilson informed the board she has looked into the protocol for recording meetings and found that they must have a retention schedule of six years. She said she learned of many different ways to record the minutes.

Mike Johnson, a civil engineer from the firm of Gray and Osborne was present to give estimates on the SR 409 project. He told the board that initial estimates were lower than expected and brought paperwork outlining a new estimate. He said that he didn’t anticipate the project would begin until spring of 2009. Jungers expressed concern for the project being put off another year.

Tramblie said that Century Tel has expressed interest in putting wire along side of the electric and water pipe on Island. If they used a two inch PVC pipe, would be their call, he said.

The board tabled discussion of moving the PUD meeting time to a different day and time. Reese said he would like the opportunity to attend county commission meetings and vice-versa.